|
But this power which determines memory is it also the
principle by which the Supreme becomes effective in us?
At any time when we have not been in direct vision of that
sphere, memory is the source of its activity within us; when we
have possessed that vision, its presence is due to the principle
by which we enjoyed it: this principle awakens where it wakens;
and it alone has vision in that order; for this is no matter to
be brought to us by way of analogy, or by the syllogistic
reasoning whose grounds lie elsewhere; the power which, even
here, we possess of discoursing upon the Intellectual Beings is
vested, as we show, in that principle which alone is capable of
their contemplation. That, we must awaken, so to speak, and thus
attain the vision of the Supreme, as one, standing on some lofty
height and lifting his eyes, sees what to those that have not
mounted with him is invisible.
Memory, by this account, commences after the soul has left the
higher spheres; it is first known in the celestial period.
A soul that has descended from the Intellectual region to the
celestial and there comes to rest, may very well be understood to
recognize many other souls known in its former state supposing
that, as we have said, it retains recollection of much that it
knew here. This recognition would be natural if the bodies with
which those souls are vested in the celestial must reproduce the
former appearance; supposing the spherical form [of the stars
inhabited by souls in the mid-realm] means a change of
appearance, recognition would go by character, by the distinctive
quality of personality: this is not fantastic; conditions
changing need not mean a change of character. If the souls have
mutual conversation, this too would mean recognition.
But those whose descent from the Intellectual is complete, how is
it with them?
They will recall their memories, of the same things, but with
less force than those still in the celestial, since they have had
other experiences to remember, and the lapse of time will have
utterly obliterated much of what was formerly present to them.
But what way of remembering the Supreme is left if the souls have
turned to the sense-known kosmos, and are to fall into this
sphere of process?
They need not fall to the ultimate depth: their downward movement
may be checked at some one moment of the way; and as long as they
have not touched the lowest of the region of process [the point
at which non-being begins] there is nothing to prevent them
rising once more.
|
|